26 On the Advantages of 



of cremation adopted ; the old method is too intimately 

 associated with long established custom to make it likely 

 that such an innovation would be received, or even discussed, 

 without some feeling. But, I think that, for reasons of health, 

 convenience, economy, and the encouragement of art, it will 

 one day be the established mode of disposing of the dead, 

 and that the sacredness of the affections will then be in 

 reality much more absolutely respected than they are now 

 by the present system, which dispassionately considered, is 

 revolting to a well-ordered mind, and on sanitary grounds 

 hurtful to the common well-being. The resources now at 

 our command in the way of chemical appliances, by means 

 of which an intense heat can be obtained, would enable us 

 to effect the destruction of a body much more rapidly than 

 by the old-fashioned and clumsy mode of a log fire. The 

 author of a paper in Fraser's Magazine, to which my 

 attention has been directed by an esteemed friend, has 

 drawn attention, in advocating the substitution of cremation 

 for inhumation, to the great advantages we possess over the 

 ancients in this particular. It will be admitted, however, 

 that if in a few minutes, by the employment of a very high 

 temperature, we could produce complete incineration, we 

 should avoid those intermediate stages in the process which 

 are occasionally described somewhat sensationally by those 

 who have witnessed the burning of bodies in India. 



As to the particular mode by which the process of crema- 

 tion is to be accomplished, I need hardly speak in detail. 

 Science is now so fertile in resources, that no practical 

 difficulty will be found in this respect. The slow and 

 clumsy method of surrounding a body with logs of wood, 

 and then igniting the pile, may be picturesque and classical 

 enough, but it would not be in accordance with modern 

 improvements. I believe, by a properly-constructed Bunsen's 

 gas-burner, an average body could be reduced to powder 

 in about a quarter of an hour. A gentleman in London 

 lately left his body to the Imperial Gas Company to be 

 consumed in a retort ; and a modification of the retort, or 

 something which should combine the kiln, the retort and 

 the reverberatory-furnace, suggests itself. I lately read in 

 one of the scientific journals, the following description of 

 a method proposed by Professor Brunetti of Florence : 

 " The apparatus is a brick furnace, in shape a parallelo- 

 gram, with ten side openings for regulating the draught. 

 The top is covered with a moveable roof provided with 



